bread or knife
by Douglas Messerli
G. W. Pabst and
Ladislaus Vajda (screenplay, based on plays by Frank Wedekind) G. W. Pabst
(director) Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box)
/ 1929
Loosely based on Frank
Wedekind's two plays Erdgeist (1985) and Die Büchse
der Pan-dora (1904), Pandora's Box, directed by Austrian
filmmaker G. W. Pabst, is perhaps one of the greatest films of the Weimar
Republic.
Watching this movie the other day, I could
easily see why composer Alban Berg was attracted to the same Wedekind plays as
the source of his opera, Lulu. For Pabst's film, despite its
silence, is basically a visual opera, as it counts down the numerous acts of
Lulu's fall.
Because of the work’s complexity I have
determined to outline the plot in detail.
In the first act, Lulu, formerly living as
a woman of the streets, is currently having an affair with the respectable
newspaper publisher, Dr. Ludwig Schön; and as we encounter her, she is
beautifully caged in Schön's lovely apartment. But her former pimp Schigolch
(who she first describes as a former patron and later as her father), visits
her in this paradisiacal world, insisting that he has better plans for her,
suggesting that through his friend Rodrigo Quest, she might perform on the
stage, making her great beauty known to the world.
Without warning, Schön returns home,
forcing Lulu to hide Schigolch on the balcony. The publisher is clearly
distressed, announcing to Lulu that he is to be married and that must give her
up as his mistress. She attempts to both distract him and allay any such
decision, but he soon discovers Schigolch, and becomes even more determined to
end his affair. Lulu insists—foretelling some of the events of the
plot—"You'll have to kill me to get rid me."
Meanwhile, Schön's son, Alwa—secretly in
love with Lulu himself—is planning to produce a musical, and discusses the
costumes with his designer, Countess Anna Geschwitz. As Lulu enters the room,
she takes up one of the designs and insists that Gerschwitz must design such a
dress for her as well. Alwa becomes determined to cast Lulu in his show,
realizing it may be a perfect way to release her from his father’s attentions,
and his father, recognizing that this might get her off of his hands, agrees to
finance the project.
A long scene of the musical, filmed from
backstage, as cast, workers, sets, and props jostle and push against the
visiting Schön and his new fiancée, Charlotte, is one of the most brilliant
scenes of the movie. Like a Boulevard farce, the entire world seems to be in
constant motion—that is until Lulu spotting Charlotte with her former lover,
refuses to go on. The dance begins without her, as one by one, the director,
Alwa, the choreographer, and others attempt to change her mind and make her
realize her responsibility—all to no avail.
Finally, Schön
himself is asked to help. Perceiving her intractability, he takes her into a
small room to force her into agreement. She remains resistant until Schön, in
an attempt to mollify her, takes her in his arms to kiss her—at the very moment
Charlotte, having been searching the stage area for him, opens the door. The
marriage, Charlotte insists, is now cancelled. Schön has been trapped into
marriage with Lulu, a woman he has warned his son "to beware of." As
he bemoans the situation, "Now I'll marry Lulu. It will be the death of
me.”
While family friends stare, aghast at the
turn of events, standing about the living room with drinks in hand, Schigolch
and the entire kitchen staff already appear to be drunk, Lulu’s evil mentor
determining to cover Lulu's wedding bed with roses.
Alwa, taking his father aside, announces
that he is leaving "for a long time."
As Lulu slips off to the bedroom,
beckoning Schön to join her, she discovers Schigolch busy with his preparations
and attempts to send him away; he refuses, pulling her down lasciviously onto
his lap.
In the courtroom scene following, the
prosecution describes Lulu as Pandora, who in Greek mythology was described as
"the first woman" who disobediently opened a jar the gods had given
her, to release all the evils of the world before closing it again, leaving
behind only "Hope."
Attempting to use her alluring beauty to
free herself from the charges, Lulu is a strange mix of a mysterious woman in
funeral attire and a beckoning call girl. As Louise Brooks plays Lulu, it is
her eyes that seem to subjugate all men, while now she is forced for
propriety's sake to hide them behind her veil, the jury finding her guilty of
manslaughter.
Schigolch and his friends, however, swarm into the courtroom,
surrounding Lulu and sweeping her up into escape.
Alwa reenters her life, finally
convincing her of the dangers with which she is faced, promising to whisk her
out of the country by train. As they prepare to leave the train, however, she
is spotted by the Marquis Casti-Piani, who threatens Alwa with the police
unless he pays. Alwa has no choice.
Casti-Piani suggests they join him,
supposedly for their protection, on a gambling boat, where, once aboard, Alwa
begins to gamble heavily, losing any money he may have previously had left.
Rodrigo Quest, in search of money himself, demands Lulu pay him. Casti-Piani,
attempts to sell her to an Egyptian. As Lulu declares "MONEY! All they
want is money!"
Desperate, Lulu pleads for financial help
from the Countess, if for no other reason than that her husband can continue
gambling, while Schigolch shows him how to play "when you're sure to
win." Caught cheating, Alwa, along with Lulu and Schigolch, are forced
escape with their lives.
As this long trajectory to the bottom of
society comes to a close, we witness the group in complete destitution in a
London hovel. Alwa, half frozen, lies in bed, while Lulu attempts to cut a loaf
of stale bread. Even a knife won't break it open, and the taste is unbearable.
Only the seemingly unflappable Schigolch seems likely to survive; after all, he
has somehow been able to come up with a bottle of liquor. As Alwa declares,
"It's strange how you can get booze on credit but not bread."
Without food or warmth, Lulu begins to
make up her face, having clearly been forced, we now realize, to return to the
streets. Her only commodity in the male-driven world she inhabits is her body.
There she discovers a handsome-looking
man, and pulls him toward her, just as Alwa and Schigolch abandon their room so
that she might bring her “trick” back, the later declaring that he could enjoy
just one more plum pudding before he dies.
The girl's pick-up reports that he has no
money, but the now desperate Lulu offers herself to him despite that fact,
luring him up the staircase into her room. In a brilliant shot filmed from
behind these two miscreants, we witness Lulu drawing him up the steps as he
holds a knife behind his back. Her alluring look and kindness forces him to
drop the knife. The audience, which has previously observed posters warning of
the dangers lurking on the street, now divines that the stranger is the
renowned Jack the Ripper.
As the murderer enters Lulu's room, he
spots the knife that would not previously cut the bread, and as Lulu pulls him
to the bed, he takes it up. Holding a piece of mistletoe over her head, he
raises the knife, which, we are certain, will easily cut through human flesh.
Below Alwa walks off, apparently
determined to leave his wife.
One might see this clearly theatrical and
melodramatic work as simply another naturalistic work not unlike a fiction by
Émile Zola or a Theodor Dreiser-like story about a doomed woman were it not for
the stunning acting of Louise Brooks. Her face, with its large eyes, long nose,
and delicate lips—all enwrapped in her deeply black bangs—seems in constant
motion in every frame of the film, shifting from a look of girlish wonderment
to vampire-like flirtation and impish delight. Brooks' Lulu, moreover, is less
of a siren than a charming plaything, an innocent who nonetheless understands
the force she has over others, and uses it to her advantage.
Her body, as I suggest above, is the only
thing that permits her survival, and yet is also what destroys her in the end.
As Pabst presents her, Lulu is sexuality itself, a container of energy that has
no other end than to burn itself up. In the choice between enduring sustenance
(bread) and temporal phallic excitement (the knife), Lulu inevitably chooses
the latter. But then, she has had no other choice; to put it somewhat coarsely,
she has been taught that in order to eat she has to fuck.
Los Angeles, August 10, 2009
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (August 2020). (director)
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